US Envoy Considers Visiting NK
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth said Wednesday that he would consider visiting North Korea as part of efforts to resume the stalled six-party denuclearization talks.
Seoul has expressed its willingness to support a one-on-one meeting between Pyongyang and Washington as far as the two-way talks help revive the six-party talks.
North Korea did not show an immediate response to the remarks by Bosworth who is on a tour of participating countries in the six-party talks.
``This is something we will be considering over the next few weeks,'' he said of a possible trip to Pyongyang.
``I think I will go back to Washington now and we will have consultations there. And then probably be in touch with our partners out here in Asia,'' he added.
This attitude is construed as a step closer toward North Korea-U.S. talks, considering that Bosworth said, shortly after assuming the post, that nothing had been determined.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly also clarified that a possible trip to the North is aimed at paving the way for a return to the six-party talks.
``I think that what Ambassador Bosworth said is that we would consider direct talks with North Korea if it was in the context of the six-party talks,'' he told reporters.
Despite concerns that direct dialogue between North Korea and the United States may isolate South Korea, Seoul has reaffirmed that it would support the possible meeting aimed at resuming the denuclearization talks.
``If it is helpful for the stalled six-way talks, there would be no reason for us to oppose,'' Moon Tae-young, spokesman of the foreign ministry, told reporters earlier.
The six-party talks have been suspended since late last year over a dispute on how to verify disablement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
The secretive state declared it would boycott the talks permanently last month in retaliation to the U.N. Security Council's statement condemning the rogue state's rocket launch.
Inter-Korean relations have soured since the Lee Myung-bak administration took over the running of the country in February 2008 with a vow to take a tougher stance toward the North Korean regime.